Ardbeg Distillery is pleased to announce the U.S. Ardbeg Rocket Tour. The tour, which will showcase a life-size rocket, celebrates Ardbeg's participation in a pioneering research project on board the International Space Station.

The Ardbeg Rocket Tour will kick off in Chicago on May 3, 2012 and will stop in 22 states in 28 weeks. Tour stops include key U.S. landmarks in states including California, Texas, New York and Florida. An Ardbeg Brand Ambassador will be on board the tour to educate consumers on the experiment, the brand, and where legal, to sample Ardbeg, recently rated by The Whisky Bible as the "Best Single Malt Scotch – 10 Years and Under." Fans can follow the Rocket Tour during its nationwide adventures via live updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare.

"Ardbeg has always been a hugely innovative brand. Therefore, it only made sense that we would participate in this ground-breaking experiment," Geraud Leclercq, U.S. Business Director for Ardbeg, says. "This tour is the perfect opportunity to educate our consumers about this exciting Ardbeg maturation experiment in micro gravity, which holds out the tantalising prospect of, maybe, being able to develop innovative new products in the years to come.

The scientific experiment itself will last for at least two years during which the Ardbeg Distillery team will provide regular updates on its progress."

About the experiment:

In the fall of 2011 a rocket ship blasted off from Earth at 25,000 mph. Deep within it no ordinary cargo; for the rocket carried research vials of precious Ardbeg-crafted molecules, the beginning of a fascinating first – a research experiment by Ardbeg...in space!

This is the most audacious adventure ever undertaken by Ardbeg Distillery – or any other distillery for that matter. Ardbeg is taking part in an experiment led by U.S.-based space research company NanoRacks LLC to test these micro-organic compounds. The maturation experiment will test the interaction of these Ardbeg-crafted molecules with charred oak. This will take place in normal gravity on Earth and also microgravity, far up in space on the International Space Station. The vials contain a class of compounds known as "terpenes" – a set of chemicals which are very widespread in nature and often very aromatic and flavour-active – as well as other molecules. It is the interaction of these molecules with oak wood that forms the basis of this maturation experiment. This is believed to be the first time anyone has ever studied terpenes and other molecules in near zero-gravity.

This experiment could explain the workings of these large, complex molecules as they will remain on the International Space Station for at least two years and help uncover new truths about the change that these molecules undergo in this near zero-gravity environment. Working in close collaboration with the Ardbeg Distillery team in Scotland, the U.S. team will closely monitor the experiment against control samples here on Earth; both in Houston, Texas at the NanoRacks' facility, and also in Warehouse 3 at Ardbeg Distillery on the Scottish island of Islay.

Michael Johnson, Chief Technical Officer of NanoRacks LLC, said: "By doing this microgravity experiment on the interaction of terpenes and other molecules with the wood samples provided by Ardbeg we will learn much about flavours, even extending to applications like food and perfume. At the same time it should help Ardbeg find new chemical building blocks in their own flavour spectrum."

From the Ardbeg side the experiment is being led by Dr. Bill Lumsden, Head of Distilling and Whisky Creation at Ardbeg, and widely considered one of the leading innovators in his industry.

He explained: "This experiment will throw new light on the effect of gravity on the maturation process. We are all tremendously excited by this experiment: who knows where it will lead?"

Robert Pearlman

BBC News reports that Ardbeg has launched a limited edition whisky to mark their experiment in space.

A rocket carrying vials of chemical compounds from Ardbeg's Islay distillery was blasted up to the International Space Station last year to test the effects of near zero gravity on the maturation process.

"We will not know the results for another year or so but in the meantime we thought we would celebrate the experiment by the introduction of Ardbeg Galileo - our own earthly tribute to the scientific experiment taking place far up in space."

The limited edition 12-year-old single malt whisky is a vatting of different styles of Ardbeg laid down in 1999.

Steve Procter

About time some really important work was done in space...

dogcrew5369

I can hear the late night jokes now! Of course I'm sure the Russians are old hats at vodka in space by now.

Blackarrow

quote:Originally posted by dogcrew5369:Of course I'm sure the Russians are old hats at vodka in space by now.

Let's scotch that rumour right now!

ColinBurgess

The Irish are always noted for their rye sense of humour!

gliderpilotuk

Let's hope the campaign doesn't end up "on the rocks"

Steve Procter

This conversation is going against the grain...!!

gliderpilotuk

Don't be so dram-atic!

Steve Procter

Maybe making Scotch in space is the way forward. I'm prepared to spend a year on the space station doing just that. I've even got a title for the mission: 'dISStillery'

BMacKinnon

I spotted Ardbeg's mobile launch platform near my house the other day to promote their new whiskey. They even had a female (model?) in a silver space suit.

Two cosmonauts, an astronaut, and the makings for a stiff drink have landed safely back on Earth, returning from the International Space Station (ISS) to the steppe of Kazakhstan.

...landing on Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-12M were 20 vials of unmatured whiskey particles that, along with the charred oak pieces used to treat them, have been in space since 2011. Part of a commercial experiment sponsored by the Scottish distillery Ardbeg and organized by Houston-based NanoRacks, a space research company, the vials contain microbes that will later be used to brew whiskey.

gliderpilotuk

"WhiskEy"? What's that?

Robert Pearlman

Per the Oxford English Dictionary:

...whisky is the usual spelling in Britain and whiskey that in the U.S.

Lou Chinal

My idea for an experiment involves passing it though the kidneys first. Any volunteers?

mjanovec

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:Per the Oxford English Dictionary:

...whisky is the usual spelling in Britain and whiskey that in the U.S.

More specifically, Scotland, Japan, and Canada use "whisky" and the USA and Ireland use "whiskey."

Ardbeg can be a little gimmicky in their marketing at times, but they do produce one of the best Islay malts there is, giving nearby Laphroig and Lagavulin a run for their money. You just have to enjoy a lot of peat in your whisky. (I have a few bottles of each tucked away in my cabinet, if that says anything about my tastes.)

I'll be interested in what they produce with this space-flown material. Of course, it will probably be a while before we see anything on the shelves, but I'm sure it will sell out quickly...as do most limited edition runs of Ardbeg.

Headshot

I was taught that, in the U.S., "whisky" is used only for the single-malt variety and that in all other cases it is "whiskey."

Robert Pearlman

For those in Houston this month, a chance to see (but sadly not taste) a vial of the space-flown whiskey. Houston Press reports:

Ardbeg collaborated with NASA and a space research company called NanoWorks. [They] distilled a recipe specifically for this process, then separated it into vials suitable for space travel, sending half into space and keeping the other half in the Ardbeg warehouse as a control sample. (Technically, the spirit isn't allowed to be labeled "whiskey": By aging with wood chips, it does not meet the specific legal requirement of being aged in a barrel for at least three years. But for all intents and purposes, it is.)

Those 20 vials spent three years orbiting Earth on the International Space Station, and in September the rocket that carried them away from there back to Earth touched down. Nineteen of those vials are back at Ardbeg headquarters. The other one is on tour, part of a display attraction stopping at three different locations. After appearing at Reserve 101 this weekend — making it the only bar in America to host the display — it currently resides at Spec's Downtown, 2410 Smith Street, (713-526-8787), where it will remain through the end of the month.

dom

Back in the day an extra "e" was added to the spelling by the Irish to differenciate their product from the so-called inferior Scottish version in the American market. Irish whiskey is distilled three times versus once for Scotch. Ironically, the word itself is derived from the old Irish/Scottish Gaelic word for Water!